Deuteronomy 22 · WEB
Neighborly Care, Sexual Purity, and Marital Laws
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You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and ignore them. You shall surely bring them back to your brother.
2If your brother isn't near you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it, and you shall restore it to him.
3So shall you do with his donkey, so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost and you have found. You may not ignore it.
4You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down in the way and ignore them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.
5A woman shall not wear men's clothing, neither shall a man put on women's clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.
6If a bird's nest happens to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young.
7You shall surely let the hen go, but you may take the young to yourself; that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.
8When you build a new house, you shall make a railing for your roof, so that you don't bring the blood of guilt on your house if anyone falls from there.
9You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown and the increase of the vineyard.
10You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
11You shall not wear mixed fabric: wool and linen together.
12You shall make for yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.
13If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and hates her,
14and accuses her of shameful deeds and gives her a bad name, saying, "I took this woman, and when I came near her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity"—
15then the young lady's father and her mother shall bring out the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.
16The young lady's father shall tell the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her.
17Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, 'I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity.' But here are the tokens of my daughter's virginity." They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
18The elders of that city shall take the man and discipline him.
19They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young lady's father, because he has brought a bad name on a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity weren't found in the young lady,
21then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
22If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then both of them shall die: the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel.
23If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,
24then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones: the young lady, because she didn't cry out, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
25But if the man finds the pledged young lady in the field and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
26But you shall do nothing to the young lady. The young lady has no sin worthy of death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter.
27For he found her in the field, the pledged young lady cried out, but there was no one to save her.
28If a man finds a young lady who is a virgin who is not pledged to be married and he lies with her and they are found,
29then the man who lay with her shall give to the young lady's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days.
30A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt.
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Summary
Chapter 22 begins with a series of neighborly obligations — returning lost animals, helping a fallen ox, making roofs safe — before covering laws about gender distinction in clothing, ecological care for a bird's nest, and mixing of unlike things (seeds, animals, fabrics). The chapter then shifts to marriage and sexual ethics: laws about false accusations of premarital infidelity, adultery, rape (with the crucial distinction between rape in the city vs. the field), and sex outside betrothal. Throughout, the underlying ethic is the protection of the vulnerable and the integrity of family and community.
Themes
- Active, not passive, love of neighbor — you may not "ignore" someone else's need
- Ecological care and respect for natural processes (the bird's nest law)
- The protection of life through practical safety measures (roof railing)
- Sexual integrity as a matter of community health, covenant faithfulness, and human dignity
- Legal protection for the vulnerable: distinguishing rape from consensual sex, protecting wrongfully accused women
Key verses
- Deut 22:1 — “You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and ignore them.”
- Deut 22:26-27 — “But you shall do nothing to the young lady. The young lady has no sin worthy of death...For he found her in the field, the pledged young lady cried out, but there was no one to save her.”
- Deut 22:8 — “When you build a new house, you shall make a railing for your roof, so that you don't bring the blood of guilt on your house if anyone falls from there.”
Context & background
The flat rooftops of ancient Israelite houses (still common in the ancient Near East and Middle East today) were used as living space for sleeping, drying food, and socializing. A railing (parapet) was therefore a genuine life-safety requirement — a building code rooted in the principle "do not bring blood guilt on your house." The laws about mixing (seeds, animals, fabrics) are often called "shatnez" laws and are interpreted as preserving the integrity of created boundaries — perhaps a symbolic counterweight to the syncretism Israel was to avoid in worship. The distinction between rape in the city and rape in the field (vv. 25-27) is one of the earliest legal distinctions that explicitly protects rape victims from being blamed for their assault.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 — Paul grounds sexual ethics in the theology of the body as God's temple
- Galatians 5:19-21 — Sexual immorality listed among works of the flesh
- Leviticus 19:17-18 — "Love your neighbor as yourself" as the foundation of the neighborly help laws
- Matthew 5:28 — Jesus deepens the sexual ethics of this chapter by including thought and intention
- Numbers 15:38-40 — The command to make tassels (tzitzit) on garments as a memory device